Gold Line 210 Freeway bridge nearing completion

ARCADIA - Work on the $18.6 million, 584-foot-long Gold Line bridge above the 210 Freeway is now three months away from completion, with up to three more weeks of consecutive 5-night closures that started late Sunday.

The bridge, which will allow connection between Pasadena's Sierra Madre Villa Station and the future Arcadia station, is the first piece of the $735 million, 11.5-mile Pasadena-to-Azusa Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension to move to construction.

Dozens of workers will continue removing the falsework - the temporary structure that has supported the massive bridge during construction - in the coming weeks.

"We've spent a year designing this bridge and now we're all able to see the outcome of that effort and that time as the architectural elements are revealed," said Lisa Levy Buch, a spokeswoman for the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority.

Up to three more weeks of consecutive eastbound freeway closures that begin Sunday nights and end Friday mornings will allow the falsework to be removed where the bridge crosses the busy 210 Freeway.

Eastbound motorists commuting late at night or early morning should be aware that the nighttime weekly closures from Baldwin to Santa Anita avenues could cause delays, Buch said.

Closures could begin as early as 11 p.m. and will end by 5 a.m.

"If they could avoid the area in the early hours of the morning, they may want to do that," she said.

The project has been a challenge to build over an active freeway and has taken coordination with Caltrans and Metro, which is eventually inheriting the project, as well as city and CHP officials, said Habib Balian, Gold Line Construction Authority CEO.

But contractor Skanska USA has been able to do the project with minimal change orders, he said.

"The design started off a little slow because of the complication of getting everybody to work together and understanding the process of design-build," Balian said. "Once that got rolling, everything fell into place."

With the help of consultants and Construction Authority staff, the project has remained "on budget and on schedule," he said.

As the falsework is being removed little by little from the bridge, specialists have been sandblasting the superstructure's exterior and doing other finishing activities. Fabrication of the baskets - a design element that represents the basket-making tradition of area Native Americans, is also taking place offsite at a Gardena plant.

About 640 full concrete tuck loads will be used in the bridge's construction and 1,000 tons of steel to reinforce the bridge.

More than 72,000 feet of rebar was used on the three 111-foot deep foundation cages, which Construction Authority officials say is "enough to wrap around Santa Anita's racetrack 14 times."

Since April, nearly 65,000 man-hours have been logged on the bridge project.

Once the bridge is completed on Dec. 15, the Construction Authority will transfer it to the alignment design-build team to construct the track on its deck.

The Pasadena-to-Azusa extension will include stops in Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale and Azusa.

The light-rail bridge replaces one that was removed after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake because it didn't meet seismic standards, according to Gold Line Construction Authority officials.